1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heat sink assembly for a cable television line amplifier. In particular, the invention relates to a heat sink assembly to transfer heat from a GaAs FET amplifier integrated circuit to a metal case housing a printed wiring board on which the amplifier integrated circuit is mounted.
2. Description Of Related Art
Heat dissipating surface mount technology has been described. For example, see "A New Surface Mount Power Package" by Alexander Ehnert and Jean-Luc Diot, published in the Proceedings of I.E.E.E. Applied Power Electronics Conference, APEC '93, conference date Mar. 7-11, 1993, incorporated herein by reference. However, Ehnert and Diot describe using copper filled through holes, and do not describe using solder posts formed in a reflow solder operation. Furthermore, Ehnert and Diot do not disclose mounting a gallium arsenide integrated circuit amplifier for wide band usage in the package. This is significant in that wide band gallium arsenide integrated circuit amplifiers as described herein dissipate more heat than do comparable sized power semiconductors, thus requiring improved thermal conduction to a cold sink.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,076 to Panicker, et al. describes a ceramic substrate with metal filled via holes for hybrid microcircuits. Panicker et al describe a high frequency gallium arsenide die mounted on a ceramic substrate with via holes that use metal filings to carry its internally generated heat through the ceramic to a heat sink.
However, Panicker et al. do not describe a microcircuit package with a heat slug bonded to a land of a printed wiring board.